This morning, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch had a briefing with the incoming government to discuss the introduction of new measures. Vojtěch again said that the introduction of more stringent measures is necessary, but aside from some general statements already repeated, no legislation has been approved. Credit: Vlada.cz.
Czech Rep, Nov 12 (BD) – This morning, Health Minister Vojtěch discussed with representatives of the new ruling coalition of Spolu (ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09) and Pirates and Mayors on the new measures that should be adopted to contain the coronavirus.
“Today we negotiated with the anticovid team of the future ruling coalition. Our intention is to find a consensus. It is not appropriate at this time to criticize each other, but to be as constructive as possible. We met for the second time, we will meet next week and if necessary on a regular basis,” said Vojtěch (ANO) at a press conference, as reported by Seznam Zprávy.
By Saturday (tomorrow) the incoming government should comment in writing on the measures it intends to take, which will probably be approved next week. According to Seznam Zprávy; Vojtěch says they are awaiting the evaluation of the anti-covid team before issuing any kind of statement on the new measures.
The Health Minister, however, did not hold back from affirming what had already been said in the previous weeks: that there is a need to administer the booster dose to the elderly, that restaurateurs should be more strict in checking the correct use of respirators and the vaccination certificate, and that in general it is their responsibility to check that the OTN documentation (certificate of vaccine, cure or test), is in order.
“Operators in particular need to check compliance with the OTN system, respiratory protection and the like. This is absolutely essential and is the responsibility of every caterer or public event organizer,” he said.
Beyond these statements that after two years of the pandemic should already be established, Vojtěch has made no other statements. Some rumors said that the government would adopt an “Austrian model” in containing the infection, so people could not participate in mass sporting or cultural events without vaccination (or a certificate attesting to having recovered in the previous 180 days), and even in restaurants, a simple negative test would no longer be enough. However, Vojtěch has neither confirmed nor denied these rumors.
Several times there has been talk of tightening of the measures, but two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, with more than 31,000 people dead in the Czech Republic, with the exponential increase in infections (this Tuesday there were 14,555 cases), with the percentage of full vaccinated people well below the European average (57.6% against a European average of 64.9%), the talk of “tightening up the measures” with “more checks on certificates” has provoked ridicule on social networks.
“What are you tightening? Nothing is respected. Go to Tesco (Tesco Česko), half of the store does not wear a mask and the guy at the entrance is playing angry birds on his phone, nobody checks anything in restaurants … and now they tighten the rules by asking students to wear masks …. what a joke !!! Reminds me of a measure the government in Romania took last year: they closed the public parks during the night,” said one social media user.
In the meantime, the introduction of tests in schools has been approved and will be carried out on November 22nd and 29th, as reported by Seznam Zprávy. Otherwise, it will be a decision for the next government as to whether to tighten the measures.
